Design Process: Research & Modelling

Video Transcript

When we first have a design idea or a customer comes to us with an idea, but not knowing where to start. we normally begin with what we used to call in the olden days a literature survey. That is, surveying what is out there. It used to be done through literature, through libraries.

Now it’s done on Google. We do this extensively to see what the customer is competing with on the market, a very important part of the designer process. It’s also a part where you can get good ideas and some inspiration as well. You can also see what is the state of the art.

What is the state of play with designs? And what are the trends? And that’s very important from the get-go.

So we start with that, progress to concept sketches and so forth, and one thing that I like getting into is three dimensional shapes by hand, foam models. They’re a great place to start and if it’s a product that concerns ergonomics, then foam is a great place.

The great thing about foam is you can modify it very quickly. You can construct walls out of foam very quickly. You can get a sense of space and how that space interacts with the end user very quickly just through blocks of foam. So I tend you to have a few available.

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